What an amazing time here in Kashgar
Look at these noodles
Right in the cauldron
So we just got to the largest animal market in Kashgar
Every Sunday
Thousands of people come here to sell sheep, lambs, horses
And along the sidelines
There's all these little stalls for food
So we are going to walk along there
And see what we can get for breakfast
And lunch, let's go check it out
This is one of the most unique street food journeys that I've ever been on
I'm Trevor James
And you won't believe the street food that we've found in this video
In the far west of rural China
Especially the home cooked meal with a local Uighur family at the end
After spending a few days exploring around Kashgar
We made our way out deep to the outskirts to the weekly animal market
Where you can sample nearly all of the local Uighur street food specialties
This is truly a once in a lifetime street food series
Wow!
Look at that huge pot of carrots
Yellow carrots
Oh yeah look at the Polo
Oh with big mutton chunks!
Polo
Look at that
So you can see all of the yellow carrots that he puts in
With the big chunks of mutton
That's a good start to the day
Alright
Let's sit down
So we were just walking through
And we just got the first thing
This beautiful polo
Zhuafan AKA Pilaf
And I've been having this a few times here in Xinjiang
And each time it's just heavenly
Oh look at those
Look at that
You can really see how saturated that rice is with oil
And these yellow carrots
Which are actually quite sweet
Every time I try them
And I'm just going to try that rice first to start
Oh yeah
Oh yeah
Oh every time
Every time that is delicious
The perfect balance between the sweetness
And the aromatic flavor of the rice is incredible
Just look at these
Honestly, these yellow carrots taste like pumpkin, they are sweet
This is deep
Look at that huge fatty chunk of mutton to start the day
Nothing like it
Now that is good
Oh the mutton
It's so tender
And juicy
The fat just melts in your mouth
Pilaf truly is one of the joys of the Silk Road
And if you can find it at a local street market or farmers market
Even better
There really is nothing like it
Especially watching them make it with cotton seed oil
And mixing it up, slowly becoming soft and sweet
After paying up, I made my way across the market
To find some of the most unique hand pulled noodles that I've ever eaten
That will just keep you alive
If you're hiking or doing anything physical
That is just pure energy
We are going to go see what else there is to eat
Oh yeah, look at this
We are in the animal market
There is hundreds of cows and sheep and horses
And we are going to see what else we can eat
I think I see some noodles up here guys
Noodle jackpot
Oh yeah
Hello
Hello!
Awesome!
Look at that!
Beautiful, I've never seen anything like that
Getting hungry just watching this
It's like 3 guys doing it
This is really entrancing
Those noodles look thick and texture filled!
Oh yeah that is skill
This guy loves doing his job
This guy just loves his job
The big noodle cauldron
This is total magic
There they are
This guy is so friendly
So friendly
Kashgar!
We are going to get a beautiful bowl of those
They have it all
They have huge sheep hanging up over there
That's probably where they get all the meat from for the lamb kebabs
And for the lagman hand pulled noodles
And for the stew
So it's all super fresh
We are going to sit down and try it out
And it's like perfect tomato chili sauce
Awesome
You gotta pour the broth into the meat
Mutton stew
Mutton soup
So we have two beautiful dishes here today
And I am just blown away with the friendliness here
And I'm expecting the food will be on the same level of enjoyment
Let's try this lagman hand pulled noodles
You saw them mixing with magic skills
Nice chunks of mutton in a tomato sauce with some chili paste
Make sure the first bite counts
This is going to be magic right here
Oh that is magic
This is something else
I can't believe the friendliness here of everyone
And this delicious food
Lets try out the lamb soup
Oh that flavor
The mutton flavor is quite strong
And they give you nice chunks of mutton
It's quite fatty though
All of this is quite fatty
I can't see any big chunks of meat
So I think the best part is just the broth
And now he put it onto Ting
How do I look?
You look great
Yeah?
This is great
What a nice plate of noodles
And nice people here
That was mind blowing experience
I think I see some lamb kebab
Kebab?
This is full on
This is right in your face and we are going to get our third snack here, the kebab
Look at that
Huge, huge kebabs
And the fat content on there is off the hook
And then they also give you a naan
A fresh, hot, it's still warm, nang
That is quite chewy
I'm still chewing, like 3 minutes later
The kid loves it
Flavored really nicely
But it takes too long to chew
Let's taste the nang
Tastes kind of stale
I saw the locals eating like this
Oh, that's the local way
You've got the local way down
This is a full on market
This explains why…
That's great
Friendly people here
This is like a full on experience guys
You get a real sense for the people here
And the culture
And the cuisine
It's all here
And this explains why we have been having so much delicious delicious meat in Xinjiang
After visiting that bustling market
We made our way back to Kashgar to prepare for the home cooked Uighur family meal that we had been invited to
What an honor
So we made our way back to Kashgar after that bustling animal market
And we
Hello!
And now we are just enjoying the peaceful…
And energetic…
Children I guess?
Peaceful neighborhoods of Kashgar
This is great
We are going for a big meal
My good friend Josh
Who runs the far west china blog and youtube channel
Has connected me with his friend Ali who runs Uighur tours here in Kashgar
And he has invited me personally to his home for a meal
I can't wait
To prepare getting invited to a home cooked meal
We went to the local bazaar
And purchased a bunch of fruits and nuts and dates
To give as a gift to Ali's family
Then we made our way out to the outskirts of Kashgar to meet Ali at his home
So we just came out to rural Kashgar and we are going to have a nice meal with Ali's family
Nice to come here
This is beautiful
Hi Ali
Nice to meet you
Wow
It's really nice to come here
For kebabs
Nice!
This is a beautiful home
Beautiful home
Very nice!
Kitchen
Chuchurra
Dumpling
Soup dumpling
The chuchurra usually comes with some noodles
Chuchurra comes with soup noodle
Great
What's inside of the chuchurra
Onion and meat
Beef or lamb?
We usually don't use beef
Oh ok
So this is a typical Uighur home
Most of the Uighur typical homes have a veranda
Oh, beautiful
And because in winter it's really really cold
So we have a warm house with warm rooms for winter
And in summer it's really really hot
And winter, -20 degrees
In summer it's 40 degrees
Oh, so it really goes up and down
In summer we spend it here
And in winter inside
Oh ok
And now it's spring so it's nice every day
Getting invited to Ali's home was truly a once in a lifetime experience
Watching his family prepare the chuchurra lamb dumplings by hand
Grilling the delicious lamb kebabs
And making hand pulled noodles covered in a healthy tomato vegetable sauce was all amazing
I've never been so lucky
Beautiful food
Very nice
Coriander
Coriander on top
Cilantro
Dried coriander
And no shaking after washing
That's important
Let it drip
And we offer a towel
Oh, ok
It's considered very impolite to shake your hands
To shake the water off
Oh ok, good
In our culture
This is the main part of the living room and the most respected guest will sit here
Then from here it goes that way
So the people who sit in the last
If new guests come in
Sometimes they will say please go ahead
So usually the respected person is selected
Like village elders or the older guests
Or more educated guests
They will sit there
And this is the chuchurra right here
Oh, very nice
Oh yeah, look at these chuchurra
Lamb, and onion
And Ali was saying that they put cilantro on top
And sometimes mint
Oh the lamb
The lamb flavor is really nice
Oh yeah, little mini lamb dumplings with that cilantro flavor
You can imagine how decadent the feasts are and how happy the atmosphere is in a room like this when it's completely full
The table was filled with fruits, nuts, dates, rock sugar for tea, and a lot of different snacks to enjoy
And after those nice and plump mini lamb dumplings
We made our way out back to enjoy a more casual kebab and noodle experience
This looks so good
Oh look at these layman
This is really just - Xinjiang is becoming one of my favorite destinations here in China
That is so magic
Pure, healthy, fresh tomato sauce
You can really taste the love in there
With these ultra chewy hand made noodles
This is so so nice to come here
Fresh kebabs
Oh, beautiful
Oh wow
Oh those are good
Oh it's so juicy!
And seasoned perfectly
After enjoying the kebabs and being introduced to the. Sweetest and most savory cardamom and saffron tea
We made our way back to Kashgar
Still beaming with happiness from that amazing home cooked Uighur food experience
Thank you very much
That was an amazing
Thank you for coming
Thank you for having me here Ali
Abdul, thank you very much
That was an amazing time
Bye bye
Thank you
Thanks so much for having me
Thank you, bye bye
That was such an amazing experience at Ali's family home here outside of Kashgar
I have to give a huge thank you to Ali for inviting me
You can check out his website and tour company Uighurtour.com
He offers a full range of services
And I also have to give a thank you to Josh
From farwestchina.com
For introducing me to his good friend Ali
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